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The New York Central Railroad was a
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
primarily operating in the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in the east with
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
and St. Louis in the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo,
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
,
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
,
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, Rochester and
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
. New York Central was headquartered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's
New York Central Building The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets in New York City, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in Midtown Manhattan. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and wa ...
, adjacent to its largest station,
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
. The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968, the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form
Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...
. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...
in 1976. Conrail was broken-up in 1999, and portions of its system were transferred to
CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of trac ...
and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage. Extensive trackage existed in the states of New York,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
and
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, plus additional trackage in the Canadian provinces of
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
(Southwestern and Eastern Ontario) and
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
(South of Montreal). At the end of 1925, the NYC operated of road and of track; at the end of 1967 the mileages were and .


Early history


Pre-New York Central: 1826–1853


Albany and Schenectady Railroad

The
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) * Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
was the oldest segment of the NYC merger and was the first permanent railroad in the state of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States. It was chartered in 1826 to connect the
Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk ...
at
Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
to the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
at Albany, providing a way for freight and especially passengers to avoid the extensive and time-consuming locks on the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...
between Schenectady and Albany. The Mohawk and Hudson opened on September 24, 1831, and changed its name to the
Albany and Schenectady Railroad The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad was the first railroad built in the state of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States. It was so-named because it linked the Mohawk River at Schenectady with the Hudson River at Albany. It was conc ...
on April 19, 1847.


Utica and Schenectady Railroad

The Utica and Schenectady Railroad was chartered April 29, 1833; as the railroad paralleled the Erie Canal, it was prohibited from carrying freight. Revenue service began on August 2, 1836, extending the line of the Albany and Schenectady Railroad west from Schenectady along the north side of the Mohawk River, paralleling the Erie Canal, to Utica. On May 7, 1844, the railroad was authorized to carry freight with some restrictions, and on May 12, 1847, the ban was fully dropped, but the company still had to pay the equivalent in canal tolls to the state.


Syracuse and Utica Railroad

The Syracuse and Utica Railroad was chartered on May 1, 1836, and similarly had to pay the state for any freight displaced from the canal. The full line opened July 3, 1839, extending the line further to
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
via
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
(and further to Auburn via the already-opened
Auburn and Syracuse Railroad The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad was incorporated on May 1, 1834, to provide easy access between Syracuse, New York, and the Erie Canal. Construction was begun in 1835, but was delayed during the Panic of 1837. Although the economic downturn linger ...
). This line was not direct, going out of its way to stay near the Erie Canal and serve Rome, and so the
Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad The Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad, chartered in 1853, a rival company to the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, threatened to build a line from Syracuse, New York to Utica by a more direct route, by way of Vernon. This reduced the total travel ti ...
was chartered on January 26, 1853. Nothing of that line was ever built, though the later West Shore Railroad, acquired by the NYC in 1885, served the same purpose.


Auburn and Syracuse Railroad

The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad was chartered on May 1, 1834, and opened mostly in 1838, the remaining opening on June 4, 1839. A month later, with the opening of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, this formed a complete line from Albany west via Syracuse to Auburn. The Auburn and Rochester Railroad was chartered on May 13, 1836, as a further extension via Geneva and Canandaigua to Rochester, opening on November 4, 1841. The two lines merged on August 1, 1850, to form the rather indirect
Rochester and Syracuse Railroad The Rochester and Syracuse Railroad was incorporated on August 1, 1850. The Auburn and Rochester Railroad Company was incorporated May 13, 1836, and opened in August 1841. The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company was incorporated May 1, 1834, and ...
(known later as the Auburn Road). To fix this, the Rochester and Syracuse Direct Railway was chartered and immediately merged into the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad on August 6, 1850. That line opened June 1, 1853, running much more directly between those two cities, roughly parallel to the Erie Canal.


Buffalo and Rochester Railroad

The
Tonawanda Railroad The Tonawanda Railroad was a railroad company established in Rochester, New York in 1832. It was eventually absorbed by the New York Central. Background Like other growing towns and cities, Batavia needed access to affordable and reliable comme ...
, to the west of Rochester, was chartered on April 24, 1832, to build from that city to
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...
. The first section, from Rochester southwest to Batavia, opened May 5, 1837, and the rest of the line to Attica opened on January 8, 1843. The Attica and Buffalo Railroad was chartered in 1836 and opened on November 24, 1842, running from Buffalo southeast to Attica. When the Auburn and Rochester Railroad opened in 1841, there was no connection at Rochester to the Tonawanda Railroad, but with that exception there was now an all-rail line between Buffalo and Albany. On March 19, 1844, the Tonawanda Railroad was authorized to build the connection, and it opened later that year. The Albany and Schenectady Railroad bought all the baggage, mail and emigrant cars of the other railroads between Albany and Buffalo on February 17, 1848, and began operating through cars. On December 7, 1850, the Tonawanda Railroad and Attica and Buffalo Railroad merged to form the
Buffalo and Rochester Railroad The Buffalo and Rochester Railroad was a railroad company formed on December 7, 1850 by the merger of the Tonawanda Railroad and the Attica and Buffalo Railroad. The company remained in business for three years before it was merged with other comp ...
. A new direct line opened from Buffalo east to Batavia on April 26, 1852, and the old line between Depew (east of Buffalo) and Attica was sold to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad on November 1. The line was added to the New York and Erie Railroad system and
converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...
to the Erie's broad gauge.


Schenectady and Troy Railroad

The
Schenectady and Troy Railroad The Troy & Schenectady Railroad was incorporated May 21, 1836. The stock was divided into five hundred shares at one hundred dollars each. The building of the road began in 1841, and trains began running from Schenectady to Troy, New York in th ...
was chartered in 1836 and opened in 1842, providing another route between the Hudson River and Schenectady, with its Hudson River terminal at
Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
.


Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls Railroad

The Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad was originally incorporated on April 24, 1834, to run from Lockport on the Erie Canal west to
Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the U.S. state, state ...
; the line opened in 1838 and was sold on June 2, 1850. On December 14, 1850, it was reorganized as the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad, and an extension east to Rochester opened on July 1, 1852. The railroad was consolidated into the New York Central Railroad under the act of 1853. A portion of the line is currently operated as the
Falls Road Railroad The Falls Road Railroad is a Class III short line railroad owned by Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT). The railroad operates in Niagara, Orleans, and Monroe counties in New York. Operations The railroad's right-of-way consists of of ...
.


Buffalo and Lockport Railroad

The
Buffalo and Lockport Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the ...
was chartered on April 27, 1852, to build a branch of the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls from Lockport towards Buffalo. It opened in 1854, running from Lockport to Tonawanda, where it joined the
Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad was a part of the New York Central Railroad system, connecting Buffalo, New York to Niagara Falls. It is still used by CSX for freight and Amtrak for passenger service. History The Buffalo and Black Rock Rai ...
, opened in 1837, for the rest of the way to Buffalo.


Mohawk Valley Railroad

The Mohawk Valley Railroad was chartered on January 21, 1851, and reorganized on December 28, 1852, to build a railroad on the south side of the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Utica, next to the Erie Canal and opposite the Utica and Schenectady. The company didn't build a line before it was absorbed, though the West Shore Railroad was later built on that location.


Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad

The
Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad The Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad, chartered in 1853, a rival company to the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, threatened to build a line from Syracuse, New York to Utica by a more direct route, by way of Vernon. This reduced the total travel ti ...
was chartered in 1853 to rival the Syracuse and Utica Railroad by building a more direct route, reducing travel time by a half-hour. The company was merged before any line could be built.


1853 company formation

Albany industrialist and Mohawk Valley Railroad owner Erastus Corning managed to unite the above railroads together into one system, and on March 17, 1853, executives and stockholders of each company agreed to merge. The merger was approved by the state legislature on April 2 and, on May 17, 1853, the New York Central Railroad was formed. Soon the
Buffalo and State Line Railroad Buffalo most commonly refers to: * Bubalina, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the tr ...
and
Erie and North East Railroad Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...
converted to from broad gauge and connected directly with the NYC in Buffalo, providing a through route to
Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...
.


Erastus Corning years: 1853–1867

The
Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad The Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad was incorporated May 17, 1852; it was merged September 30, 1855, into the New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic ...
was organized in 1852 and opened in fall 1853; it was leased to the
Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the ...
, which became part of the NYC, before opening. In 1855, it was merged into the NYC, providing a branch from Rochester north to
Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
on
Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
. The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad was also merged into the NYC in 1855. It had been chartered in 1834 and opened in 1837, providing a line between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. It was leased to the NYC in 1853. Also in 1855 came the merger with the
Lewiston Railroad The Lewiston Railroad Company was an early railroad in Lewiston, NY, running to Niagara Falls, NY. The railroad eventually became a part of the New York Central Railroad system. History On May 6, 1836, The Lewiston Rail-Road Company was incorpo ...
, running from Niagara Falls north to Lewiston. It was chartered in 1836 and opened in 1837, without connections to other railroads. In 1854, a southern extension opened to the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad and the line was leased to the NYC. The
Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad The Elmira and Lake Ontario Railroad was a subsidiary of the Northern Central Railway and later the Pennsylvania Railroad, formed to give the Northern Central an outlet for coal traffic on Lake Ontario. Predecessors Horseheads–Canandaigua Th ...
was chartered in 1851. The first stage opened in 1853 from Canandaigua on the Auburn Road west to Batavia on the main line. A continuation west to
North Tonawanda North Tonawanda is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 31,568 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after Tonawanda Creek, its south bo ...
opened later that year and, in 1854, a section opened in Niagara Falls connecting it to the
Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge stood from 1855 to 1897 across the Niagara River and was the world's first working railway suspension bridge. It spanned and stood downstream of Niagara Falls, where it connected Niagara Falls, Ontario t ...
. The NYC bought the company at
bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...
in 1858 and reorganized it as the
Niagara Bridge and Canandaigua Railroad Niagara may refer to: Geography Niagara Falls and nearby places In both the United States and Canada * Niagara Falls, the famous waterfalls in the Niagara River * Niagara River, part of the U.S.–Canada border * Niagara Escarpment, the cliff ...
, merging it into itself in 1890. The
Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...
was chartered in 1864 and opened in 1866 as a branch of the NYC from
Athens Junction Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, southeast of Schenectady, southeast and south to
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
on the west side of the Hudson River. On September 9, 1876, the company was merged into the NYC, but in 1876 the terminal at Athens burned down and the line was abandoned.


Hudson River Railroad

The
Troy and Greenbush Railroad Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of ...
was chartered in 1845 and opened later that year, connecting Troy south to Greenbush (now Rensselaer) on the east side of the Hudson River. The Hudson River Railroad was chartered on May 12, 1846, to extend this line south to New York City; the full line opened on October 3, 1851. Prior to completion, on June 1, it leased the Troy and Greenbush.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
obtained control of the Hudson River Railroad in 1864, soon after he bought the parallel
New York and Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and ...
. Along the line of the Hudson River Railroad, the
West Side Line The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north vi ...
was built in 1934 in the borough of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
as an elevated bypass of then-abandoned
street running A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as ru ...
trackage on Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. The elevated section has since been abandoned, and the tunnel north of 35th Street is used only by
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
trains to
New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers ...
(all other trains use the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad to reach the
Harlem Line The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Sou ...
). The surviving sections of the West Side Line south of 34th Street reopened as the High Line, a
linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linear p ...
built between 2009 and 2014.


Heyday


Vanderbilt years: 1867–1954

In 1867,
Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
acquired control of the Albany to Buffalo-running NYC, with the help of maneuverings related to the Hudson River Bridge in Albany. On November 1, 1869, he merged the NYC with his Hudson River Railroad to form the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. This extended the system south from Albany along the east bank of the Hudson River to New York City, with the leased Troy and Greenbush Railroad running from Albany north to Troy. Vanderbilt's other lines were operated as part of the NYC; these included the New York and Harlem Railroad, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway,
Canada Southern Railway The Canada Southern Railway , also known as CSR, was a railway in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 186 ...
and Michigan Central Railroad. The Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad was chartered in 1869 and opened in 1871, providing a route on the north side of the Harlem River for trains along the Hudson River to head southeast to the New York and Harlem Railroad. Trains could head toward Grand Central Depot, built by NYC and opened in 1871, or to the freight facilities at Port Morris. From opening, it was leased by the NYC. The
Geneva and Lyons Railroad The Geneva and Lyons Railroad was a railroad in New York State, constructed and owned by the New York Central Railroad. Chartered in 1877 and opened in 1878, it served as an outlet for coal trains on the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning Railroad to r ...
was organized in 1877 and opened in 1878, leased by the NYC from opening. This was a connection between Syracuse and Rochester, running from the main line at Lyons to the Auburn Road at Geneva. It was merged into the NYC in 1890. In 1885, the
New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...
, a competitor since 1883 with trackage along the west shore of the Hudson River and on to Buffalo closely paralleling the NYC, was taken over by the NYC as the West Shore Railroad and developed passenger, freight, and car float operations at Weehawken Terminal. The NYC assumed control of the
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE) , also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio in the ...
and
Boston and Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. ...
s in 1887 and 1900, respectively, with both roads remaining as independently-operating subsidiaries.
William H. Newman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of ...
, president of the New York Central lines, resigned in 1909. Newman had been president since 1901, when he replaced
Samuel R. Callaway Samuel R. Callaway (December 24, 1850 – June 1, 1904) was an American railroad executive. He served as president of Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad and Belt Line, second vice president and general manager of Union Pacific Railroad 1 ...
(who had replaced Depew as president in 1898). In 1914, the operations of eleven subsidiaries were merged with the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, re-forming the New York Central Railroad. From the beginning of the merger, the railroad was publicly referred to as the New York Central Lines. In the summer of 1935, the identification was changed to the New York Central System, that name being kept until the merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968. The
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the Midwestern United States. It operated in affiliation with the New York Central system. I ...
, also known as the Big Four, was formed on June 30, 1889, by the merger of the
Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway The Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway (CCC&I) was formed from the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C) with the Bellefontaine Railway in 1868. The Bellefontaine had been formed by a merger of t ...
, the
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway
and the
Indianapolis and St. Louis Railway Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...
. The following year, the company gained control of the former
Indiana Bloomington and Western Railway The Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway was a railroad that once operated in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Its immediate predecessor, the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway, was formed on July 20, 1869, from the merger of the In ...
. By 1906, the Big Four was itself acquired by the New York Central Railroad. It operated independently until 1930; it was then referred to as the Big Four Route.


Topography

The generally level topography of the NYC system had a character distinctively different than the mountainous terrain of its archrival, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Most of its major routes, including New York to Chicago, followed rivers and had no significant grades other than West Albany Hill and the Berkshire Hills on the Boston and Albany. This influenced a great deal about the line, from advertising to locomotive design, built around its flagship New York-Chicago Water Level Route.


Bypasses

A number of bypasses and cutoffs were built around congested areas. The Junction Railroad's Buffalo Belt Line opened in 1871, providing a bypass of Buffalo to the northeast as well as a loop route for passenger trains via downtown. The West Shore Railroad, acquired in 1885, provided a bypass around Rochester. The Terminal Railway's Gardenville Cutoff, allowing through traffic to bypass Buffalo to the southeast, opened in 1898. The Schenectady Detour consisted of two connections to the West Shore Railroad, allowing through trains to bypass downtown Schenectady. The full project opened in 1902. The
Cleveland Short Line Railway The Cleveland Short Line Railway is a freight bypass around southern Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. A quasi-independent railroad organized by major shareholders of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the shortline was intended ...
built a bypass of Cleveland, Ohio, completed in 1912. In 1924, the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge was constructed as part of the
Hudson River Connecting Railroad Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson ...
's Castleton Cut-Off, a 27.5-mile-long freight bypass of the congested West Albany terminal area and West Albany Hill. An unrelated realignment was made in the 1910s at Rome, when the Erie Canal was realigned and widened onto a new alignment south of downtown Rome. The NYC main line was shifted south out of downtown to the south bank of the new canal. A bridge was built southeast of downtown, roughly where the old main line crossed the path of the canal, to keep access to and from the southeast. West of downtown, the old main line was abandoned, but a brand-new railroad line was built, running north from the NYC main line to the NYC's former
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad The Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad was a railroad that grew, in stages, from Rome, New York to Watertown and then to Ogdensburg, New York and Massena, New York. The original Rome and Watertown Railroad terminated in Cape Vincent, NY o ...
, allowing all NYC through traffic to bypass Rome.


Trains

Steam locomotives of the NYC were optimized for speed on that flat raceway of a main line, rather than slow mountain lugging. Famous locomotives of the system included the well-known 4-6-4 Hudsons, particularly the 1937–38 J-3a's;
4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly know ...
World War II–era 1940 L-3 and 1942 L-4 Mohawks; and the 1945-46 S-class Niagaras: fast
4-8-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type w ...
locomotives often considered the epitome of their breed by steam locomotive aficionados ( railfans). For two-thirds of the twentieth century the New York Central had some of the most famous trains in the United States. Its '' 20th Century Limited'' (''Century''), begun in 1902, ran between Grand Central Terminal in New York and LaSalle Street Station, Chicago, and was its most famous train, known for its red carpet treatment and first-class service. Its last run was made on December 2–3, 1967. In the mid-1930s many railroad companies were introducing streamlined locomotives; until the New York Central introduced the ''Commodore Vanderbilt'', all were diesel-electric. The ''Vanderbilt'' was the NYC's first streamlined steam locomotive. The NYC hosted the streamlined steam-powered
Rexall Train Rexall was a chain of American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1903, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across th ...
of 1936, which toured 47 states to promote the Rexall chain of drug stores and to provide space for company conventions. The steam-powered ''Century'', which followed the Water Level Route, could complete the 960.7-mile trip in 16 hours after its June 15, 1938 streamlining (and did it in 15 hours for a short period after World War II). Also famous were the NYC's ''
Empire State Express The ''Empire State Express'' was one of the named passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (a predecessor of the later New York Central Railroad). On September 14, 1891, it covered the 436 miles ...
'', which traveled from New York City through upstate New York to Buffalo and Cleveland, and the '' Ohio State Limited'', which ran between New York City and Cincinnati. At various times, beginning in 1946 and continuing into the mid-1950s, the ''Century'' and other NYC trains exchanged sleeping cars in Chicago with western trains such as the '' Super Chief'' and the ''
City of San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
''. The cars, which contained roomettes, double bedrooms and drawing rooms, provided through sleeper service between New York City and Los Angeles or San Francisco (
Oakland Pier The Oakland Long Wharf was an 11,000-foot railroad wharf and ferry pier along the east shore of San Francisco Bay located at the foot of Seventh Street in West Oakland. The Oakland Long Wharf was built, beginning 1868, by the Central Pacific Rail ...
). Despite having some of the most modern
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s anywhere, NYC's difficult financial position caused it to convert to more-economical diesel-electric power rapidly. All lines east of Cleveland, Ohio were dieselized between August 7, 1953 (east of Buffalo) and September, 1953 (Cleveland-Buffalo). Niagaras were all retired by July, 1956. On May 3, 1957, H7e class
2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing w ...
Mikado type steam locomotive #1977 is reported to have been the last steam locomotive to retire from service on the railroad. But, the economics of northeastern railroading became so dire that not even this switch could change things for the better. Prominent New York Central trains:


New York to Chicago

*'' 20th Century Limited'': New York to Chicago (limited stops) via the Water Level Route 1902–1967 *''Commodore Vanderbilt'': New York–Chicago (a few more stops) via the Water Level Route *'' Lake Shore Limited'': New York–Chicago via Cleveland with branch service to Boston and St. Louis 1896–1956, 1971–Present (Reinstated and combined with ''New England States'' by Amtrak in 1971) *''Chicagoan'': New York–Chicago *''Pacemaker'': New York–Chicago all-coach train via Cleveland *''
Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a musc ...
'': New York-Chicago via southern Ontario and Detroit


The ''Mercuries''

*''Chicago Mercury'': Chicago-Detroit *''Cincinnati Mercury'': Cleveland-Cincinnati *''Cleveland Mercury'': Detroit–Cleveland *''Detroit Mercury'': Cleveland-Detroit


New York to St. Louis

*''Knickerbocker'': New York–St. Louis * ''Southwestern Limited'': New York–St. Louis, from 1889 to 1966


Other trains

*''
Empire State Express The ''Empire State Express'' was one of the named passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (a predecessor of the later New York Central Railroad). On September 14, 1891, it covered the 436 miles ...
'': New York-Buffalo and Cleveland via the Empire Corridor 1891–Present (as far as Niagara Falls, NY as Empire Service). *''Cleveland Limited'': New York–Cleveland *''Detroiter'': New York–Detroit * '' Great Lakes Aerotrain'': Chicago-Detroit/Cleveland 1956 (Special experimental lightweight train) *'' James Whitcomb Riley'': Chicago-Cincinnati *''Michigan'': Chicago-Detroit *''Motor City Special'': Chicago–Detroit *'' New England States'': Boston-Chicago via the Water Level Route 1938–1971 (Retained by Penn Central and, for Amtrak, combined with reinstated ''Lake Shore Limited'') *''
North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...
'': New York-Cleveland, branches to Toronto and Lake Placid *'' Ohio State Limited'': New York-Cincinnati via Empire Corridor *'' Ohio Xplorer'': Cleveland-Cincinnati 1956–1957 (Special experimental lightweight train) *''Twilight Limited'': Chicago–Detroit Trains left from Grand Central Terminal in New York, Weehawken Terminal in
Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.
,
South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan ...
in Boston, Cincinnati Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Michigan Central Station in Detroit, St. Louis Union Station, and LaSalle Street Station and Central Station (for some Detroit and CincinnatI trains) in Chicago. The New York Central had a network of commuter lines in New York and Massachusetts. Westchester County, New York had the railroad's Hudson, Harlem, and Putnam lines into Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan (Putnam Division trains required a change at High Bridge, New York), while New Jersey and Rockland County, New York were serviced by the
West Shore Line The River Line was a Conrail rail line located between Jersey City, New Jersey and Selkirk, New York, running along the west side of the Hudson Palisades and, after passing through a tunnel at Haverstraw, New York, along the west bank of the Hud ...
between Weehawken and Kingston, New York, on the west side of the Hudson River.


Decline

The New York Central, like many U.S. railroads, declined after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Problems resurfaced that had plagued the railroad industry before the war, such as over-regulation by the
Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...
(ICC), which severely regulated the rates charged by the railroad, along with continuing competition from automobiles and trucks. These problems were coupled with even more-formidable forms of competition, such as airline service in the 1950s that began to deprive NYC of its long-distance passenger trade. The
Interstate Highway Act The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With an original authorization of $25 billion for ...
of 1956 helped create a network of government subsidized highways for motor vehicle travel throughout the country, enticing more people to travel by car, as well as haul freight by truck. The 1959 opening of the
Saint Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Ameri ...
also adversely affected NYC freight business: container shipments could now be directly shipped to ports along the Great Lakes, eliminating the railroads' freight hauls between the east and the Midwest. The NYC also carried a substantial tax burden from governments that saw rail infrastructure as a source of property tax revenuestaxes that were not imposed upon interstate highways. To make matters worse, most railroads, including the NYC, were saddled with a World War II-era tax of 15% on passenger fares, which remained until 1962: 17 years after the end of the war.


Robert R. Young: 1954–1958

In June 1954, management of the New York Central System lost a
proxy fight A proxy fight, proxy contest or proxy battle (sometimes even called a proxy war) is an unfriendly contest for the control over an organization. The event usually occurs when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the cor ...
in 1954 to
Robert Ralph Young Robert Ralph Young (February 14, 1897 – January 25, 1958) was an American financier and industrialist. He is best known for leading the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the New York Central Railroad during and after World War II. He was a b ...
and the Alleghany Corporation he led.
Alleghany Corporation Alleghany Corporation is an American investment holding company originally created by the railroad entrepreneurs Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen as a holding company for their railroad interests. It was incorporated in 1929 and reincorporated ...
was a real estate and railroad empire, built by the Van Sweringen brothers of
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
in the 1920s, that had controlled the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) and the
Nickel Plate Road The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad , abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylv ...
. It fell under the control of Young and financier Allan Price Kirby during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Young was considered a railroad visionary, but found the New York Central in worse shape than he had imagined. Unable to keep his promises, Young was forced to suspend dividend payments in January 1958. He committed suicide later that month at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion.


Alfred E. Perlman: 1958–1968

After Young's suicide, his role in NYC management was assumed by
Alfred E. Perlman Alfred Edward Perlman (November 22, 1902—April 30, 1983) was a railroad executive, having served as president of the Penn Central Transportation Company and its predecessor, the New York Central Railroad. Early career Perlman graduated from ...
, who had been working with the NYC under Young since 1954. Despite the dismal financial condition of the railroad, Perlman was able to streamline operations and save the company money. Starting in 1959, Perlman was able to reduce operating deficits by $7.7 million, which nominally raised NYC stock to $1.29 per share, producing dividends of an amount not seen since the end of the war. By 1964 he was able to reduce the NYC long-term debt by nearly $100 million, while reducing passenger deficits from $42 to $24.6 million. Perlman also enacted several modernization projects throughout the railroad. Notable was the use of Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) systems on many of the NYC lines, which reduced the four-track mainline to two tracks. He oversaw construction and/or modernization of many hump or
classification yards A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...
, notably the $20 million Selkirk Yard, which opened south of Albany in 1924 and was modernized in 1966. Perlman also experimented with jet trains, creating a Budd RDC car (the
M-497 Black Beetle The M-497 (nicknamed Black Beetle by the press) was an experimental jet-powered railcar test bed of the New York Central Railroad, developed and tested in 1966 in the United States. Two second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, originally ...
) powered by two
J47 The General Electric J47 turbojet (GE company designation TG-190) was developed by General Electric from its earlier J35. It first flew in May 1948. The J47 was the first axial-flow turbojet approved for commercial use in the United States. I ...
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
s stripped from a B-36 Peacemaker bomber as a solution to increasing car and airplane competition. This project did not leave the prototype stage. Perlman's cuts resulted in the curtailing of many of the railroad's services; commuter lines around New York were particularly affected. In 1958–1959, service was suspended on the NYC's
Putnam Division The New York and Putnam Railroad, nicknamed the Old Put, was a railroad line that operated between the Bronx and Brewster in New York State. It was in close proximity to the Hudson River Railroad and New York and Harlem Railroad. All three cam ...
in Westchester and Putnam counties, and the NYC abandoned its ferry service across the Hudson to Weehawken Terminal. This negatively impacted the railroad's West Shore Line, which ran along the west bank of the Hudson River from Jersey City to Albany, which saw long-distance service to Albany discontinued in 1958 and commuter service between Jersey City and
West Haverstraw, New York West Haverstraw is a village incorporated in 1883 in the town of Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located northwest of Haverstraw village, east of Thiells, south of the hamlet of Stony Point, and west of the Hudson ...
terminated in 1959. Ridding itself of most of its commuter service proved impossible due to the heavy use of these lines around metro New York, where governments mandated that the railroad still operate. Many long-distance and regional passenger trains were either discontinued or downgraded in service, with coaches replacing Pullman, parlor, and sleeping cars on routes in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The Empire Corridor between Albany and Buffalo saw service greatly reduced, with service beyond Buffalo to
Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the U.S. state, state ...
discontinued in 1961. On December 3, 1967, most of the great long-distance trains ended, including the famed ''Twentieth Century Limited''. The railroad's branch-line service off the Empire Corridor in upstate New York was also gradually discontinued, the last being its Adirondack Division line between Utica and Lake Placid, on April 24, 1965. Many of the railroad's great train stations in Rochester,
Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
, and Albany were demolished or abandoned. Despite the savings these cuts created, it was apparent that, if the railroad was to become solvent again, a more permanent solution was needed.


Demise


Merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad

One problem that many of the Northeastern railroads faced was the fact that the railroad market was saturated for the dwindling rail traffic that remained. The NYC had to compete with its two biggest rivals: the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), in addition to more moderate-size railroads such as the
Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...
(DLW), the
Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake ...
, the Reading Company, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the
Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, ...
. Mergers of these railroads seemed a promising way for these companies to streamline operations and reduce the competition. The DL&W and Erie railroads had showed some success when they began merging their operations in 1958, finally leading to the formation of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad in 1960. Other mergers combined the Virginian Railway, Wabash Railroad,
Nickel Plate Road The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad , abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylv ...
and several others into the
Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precis ...
(N&W) system, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), Western Maryland Railway (WM) and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) combined with others to form the
Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated under ...
. Heavy streamlining and reduction in passenger services led to the success of many of these mergers. Following this trend, the NYC began to look for a potential railroad to merge with as early as the mid-1950s and had originally sought-out mergers with the B&O and the NYC-controlled Nickel Plate Road. Unlike the aforementioned mergers, however, a NYC merger proved tricky due to the fact that it still operated a fairly-extensive amount of regional and commuter passenger services that it was under mandates by the Interstate Commerce Commission to maintain. It soon became apparent that the only other railroad with enough capital to allow for a potentially-successful merger was the NYC's chief rival, the PRR: itself a railroad that still had a large passenger trade. Merger talks between the two roads were discussed as early as 1955; however, this was delayed due to a number of factors: among them, interference by the Interstate Commerce Commission, objections from operating unions, concerns from competing railroads and the inability of the two companies themselves to formulate a merger plan, thus delaying progress for over a decade. Two major points of contention centered on which railroad should have the majority controlling-interest going into the merger. Perlman's cost-cutting during the '50s and '60s put NYC in a more financially-healthy situation than the PRR. Nevertheless, the ICC, with urging by PRR President
Stuart T. Saunders Stuart Thomas Saunders, Sr. (July 16, 1909 – February 7, 1987) was an American railroad executive best known for his tenure with Penn Central. Biography Saunders was born in McDowell, West Virginia, and reared near Bedford, Virginia. He gradu ...
, wanted the PRR to absorb the NYC. Another point centered on the ICC's wanting to force the bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, better known as the New Haven, into the new system, which it did in 1969: something to which both companies strongly objected (with excellent financial cause). Eventually, both points would ultimately lead to the new Penn Central's demise. On January 26, 1968, the NYC's last passenger timetable became effective. The final timetable revealed a drastically truncated schedule in anticipation of its merger with the PRR. Most local and long-distance passenger service had ended on December 3, 1967, including that of the ''20th Century Limited''.


Penn Central: 1968–1976

On February 1, 1968, the New York Central was absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad was renamed Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company and then eventually renamed the Penn Central Transportation Company, with the NYC's Alfred E. Perlman as president. Penn Central was quickly saddled with debt when the ICC forced the money-losing New Haven into the railroad in 1969. In addition, the merger was handled in a haphazard manner, with no formal merger plan implemented. The two companies' competing corporate cultures, union interests and incompatible operating and computer systems sabotaged any hope for a success. Additionally, in an effort to look profitable, the board of directors authorized the use of the railroad's reserve cash to pay dividends to company stockholders. Nevertheless, on June 21, 1970, Penn Central declared bankruptcy: the largest private bankruptcy in the United States up to that time. Under bankruptcy protection, many of Penn Central's outstanding debts owed to other railroads were frozen, while debts owed to Penn Central by the other roads were not. This sent a trickle effect throughout the already-fragile railroad industry, forcing many of the other Northeastern railroads into insolvency: among them the Erie Lackawanna, Boston and Maine, Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Reading Company and the Lehigh Valley. Penn Central marked the last hope of privately funded passenger rail service in the United States. In response to the bankruptcy, President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
signed into law the
Rail Passenger Service Act The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
of 1970 which formed the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
: a government-subsidized railroad system. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over the operation of most regional and long-distance intercity passenger trains in the United States. Amtrak would eventually assume ownership of the Northeast Corridor, a mostly-electrified route between Boston and Washington, D.C., inherited primarily from the PRR and New Haven systems. Penn Central and the other railroads were still obligated to operate their commuter services for the next five years while in bankruptcy, eventually turning them over to the newly formed
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...
in 1976. There was some hope that Penn Central, and the other Northeastern railroads, could be restructured toward profitability once their burdensome passenger deficits were unloaded. However, this was not to be, and the railroads never recovered from their respective bankruptcies.


Conrail and CSX: 1976–present

Conrail, officially the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was created by the U.S. government to salvage Penn Central and the other bankrupt railroads' freight business, beginning its operations on April 1, 1976. As mentioned, Conrail assumed control of Penn Central's commuter lines throughout the
Lower Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Y ...
of New York, Connecticut, and in and around Boston. In 1983, these commuter services would be turned over to the state-funded
Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connectic ...
in New York and Connecticut, and
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network ...
in Massachusetts. Conrail would go on to achieve profitability by the 1990s and was sought by several other large railroads in a continuing trend of mergers, eventually having its assets absorbed by
CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of trac ...
and Norfolk Southern in 1999. Conrail, in an effort to streamline its operations, was forced to abandon miles of both NYC and PRR trackage. Nevertheless, the majority of the NYC system is still intact and used by both CSX and Amtrak. Among the lines still used are the famed Water Level Route between New York and Chicago, as well as the former Boston & Albany line between these points, the Kankakee Belt Route through Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, and the West Shore Line between Jersey City and the Albany suburb of Selkirk, where the old NYC (now CSX) Selkirk Yard is among the busiest freight yards in the country. On June 6, 1998, most of Conrail was split between Norfolk Southern and CSX. New York Central Lines LLC was formed as a subsidiary of Conrail, containing the lines to be operated by CSX: this included the old Water Level Route and many other lines of the New York Central, as well as various lines from other companies, and also assumed the '′NYC′′
reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equip ...
. CSX eventually fully-absorbed the subsidiary as part of a streamlining of Conrail operations.


See also

*
National New York Central Railroad Museum The National New York Central Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Elkhart, Indiana dedicated to the preservation of the New York Central Railroad (NYC). The museum includes several outdoor equipment displays, indoor model railroads, ...
, in Elkhart, Indiana * George Henry Daniels, associated publicist *
Arthur P Yates Arthur P Yates was a pioneer and leader in railroad photography. He was the official photographer for the New York Central Railroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He worked for the company for fifty years. Yates photographe ...
, official photographer for the company *
Charles H. Hogan Charles H. Hogan (January 9, 1850 – July 19, 1939) was an American train engineer, mostly for the New York Central railroad company. His talent was knowing how to run steam locomotives at peak capacity without doing harm to the boiler. Nearly ...
, engineer on high-speed trains * New York Central Tugboat 13, used to push rail barges *
Four-Track News ''Travel Holiday'' was an American magazine title born in 1977 when the publisher of ''Travel'' acquired ''Holiday'' magazine and merged the titles. The magazine ceased publication in 2003. ''Travel Holiday'' had its origins in ''The Four-Trac ...
, company publication


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External links


National New York Central Railroad Museum

New York Central System Historical Society
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:New York Central Railroad Former Class I railroads in the United States Railroads controlled by the Vanderbilt family Penn Central Transportation Defunct New York (state) railroads Defunct Illinois railroads Defunct Indiana railroads Transportation in Gary, Indiana Defunct Massachusetts railroads Defunct Michigan railroads Defunct New Jersey railroads Defunct Ohio railroads Defunct Ontario railways Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Defunct Quebec railways Defunct West Virginia railroads Railroads in the Chicago metropolitan area Companies based in New York City Transportation in Buffalo, New York Defunct railroads in Syracuse, New York Erie Canal Hudson River Predecessors of Conrail Standard gauge railways in the United States Railway companies established in 1853 Railway companies disestablished in 1869 Railway companies established in 1914 Railway companies disestablished in 1968 Defunct Missouri railroads Transportation in Albany County, New York American companies established in 1853 American companies disestablished in 1869 American companies established in 1914 American companies disestablished in 1968